GnuCash

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GnuCash is an accounting program that implements a double-entry bookkeeping system. It was initially aimed at developing capabilities similar to Intuit, Inc.'s Quicken application,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but also has features for small business accounting.<ref name="What is GnuCash?">Template:Cite web</ref> Recent development has been focused on adapting to modern desktop support-library requirements.

GnuCash is part of the GNU Project,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and runs on Linux, GNU, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris, macOS, and other Unix-like platforms.<ref name="GnuCash Download">Template:Cite web</ref> A Microsoft Windows (2000 or newer) port was made available starting with the 2.2.0 series.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

GnuCash includes scripting support via Scheme, mostly used for creating custom reports.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

Programming on GnuCash began in 1997, and its first stable release was in 1998. Small Business Accounting was added in 2001. A Mac installer became available in 2004. A Windows port was released in 2007.<ref name=history />

GnuCash for Android and GnuCash Mobile

GnuCash for Android was initially developed as part of a Google Summer of Code Project.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This was an expense-tracking companion app for GnuCash, as opposed to a stand-alone accounting package, and is now discontinued. Currently, there are more than 100,000 downloads on the Play Store.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2022 a companion version dubbed GnuCash Mobile is also available on the App Store and Play Store and unlike previous iterations was released under the MIT License.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> GnuCash Mobile is developed using Flutter. Beyond mentoring the original GnuCash for Android developer and providing some publicity there was no connection between Gnucash for Android and the GnuCash project, nor is there any for the current so-called GnuCash Mobile app.

Backwards compatibility issues

GnuCash maintains the ability to read older data files between major releases, as long as major releases are not skipped.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> If a user wishes to access historical data saved in old GnuCash files, they must install intermediate versions of GnuCash. For example, upgrading from 2.2 to 4.1 may not be possible; the user should upgrade from 2.2.9 to 2.4.15, then to 2.6.21, then 3.11, then 4.1.

The other alternative is for users to export transactions files to a CSV format<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> prior to upgrading GnuCash. Exporting of the account tree must be done as a separate step.

Features

Double-entry bookkeeping<ref name="Linux.com Review">Template:Cite web</ref>
Scheduled Transactions<ref name="Linux.com Review" />
Mortgage and Loan Repayment Assistant
Small Business Accounting Features<ref name="What is GnuCash?" />
OFX, QIF Import,<ref name="Linux.com Review" /> CSV Import
HBCI Support<ref name="Linux.com Review" />
Transaction-Import Matching Support
SQL Support
VAT/GST tracking and reporting
Multi-Currency Transaction Handling<ref name="Linux.com Review" />
Stock/Mutual Fund Portfolios
Online Stock and Mutual Fund Quotes
Built-in and custom reports and charts
Budget
Bank and Credit Card reconciliation
Check printing

Small business accounting features

Invoicing and Credit Notes (Credit note functionality was added with version 2.6)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Accounts Receivable (A/R)
Accounts Payable (A/P) including bills due reminders
Employee expense voucher
Limited Payroll Management through the use of A/Receivable and A/Payable accounts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Depreciation
Mapping to income tax schedules and TXF export for import into tax prep software (US)
Setting up tax tables and applying sales tax on invoices

Technical design

GnuCash is written primarily in C, with a small fraction in Scheme.<ref name="GnuCash FAQ Lang">Template:Cite web</ref> One of the available features is pure fixed-point arithmetic to avoid rounding errors which would arise with floating-point arithmetic. This feature was introduced with version 1.6.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Users

Users on the GnuCash mailing list have reported using it for the United States 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations successfully. However, the reports need to be exported and edited.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In April 2011, the Minnesota State Bar Association made their GnuCash trust accounting guide freely available in PDF format.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Download statistics

As of July 2018, SourceForge shows a count of over 6.3 million downloads of the stable releases starting from November 1999<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Also, SourceForge shows that current downloads are running at ~7,000 per week.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This does not include other software download sites as well as Linux distributions that provide download from their own repositories.

Project status

Open Hub's analysis based on commits up to May 2018 (noninclusive) concluded that the project has a mature, well-established code baseTemplate:Efn with increasing year-over-year development activity.Template:Efn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Moreover, "Over the past twelve months, 51 developers contributed new code to GnuCash. This is one of the largest open-source teams in the world, and is in the top 2% of all project teams on Open Hub."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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